Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 48

Aictor shouted so loud that the men, who had never heard a bird talking in their hunting camp before, began to ask among themselves what he was saying, but as they did not understand Ingor, they could not tell one another.

Who acts: Aictor, men, bird · What happens: shout, not hear, talk, begin, ask, say · To what, where: bird, hunting camp, Ingor, one · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Aictor, men, bird), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Aictor	Aictor	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 shouted	nsubj
2	shouted	shout	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	so	so	ADV	_	4 loud	advmod
4	loud	loud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 shouted	xcomp
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	22 began	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 men	det
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 began	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 heard	punct
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 heard	nsubj
10	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 heard	aux
11	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	12 heard	advmod
12	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 men	acl:relcl
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 bird	det
14	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 heard	obj
15	talking	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 bird	acl
16	in	in	ADP	_	19 camp	case
17	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 camp	nmod:poss
18	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 camp	compound
19	camp	camp	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 talking	obl
20	before	before	ADV	_	15 talking	advmod
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 men	punct
22	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 loud	advcl
23	to	to	PART	_	24 ask	mark
24	ask	ask	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 began	xcomp
25	among	among	ADP	_	26 themselves	case
26	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	24 ask	obl
27	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	30 saying	obj
28	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	30 saying	nsubj
29	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 saying	aux
30	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	24 ask	ccomp
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	43 tell	punct
32	but	but	CCONJ	_	43 tell	cc
33	as	as	SCONJ	_	37 understand	mark
34	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 understand	nsubj
35	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 understand	aux
36	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	37 understand	advmod
37	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 tell	advcl
38	Ingor	Ingor	PROPN	Number=Sing	37 understand	obj
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 understand	punct
40	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 tell	nsubj
41	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	43 tell	aux
42	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	43 tell	advmod
43	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 shouted	conj
44	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	43 tell	obj
45	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	44 one	fixed
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 shouted	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	past	Aictor			loud property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not hear	past · perfect	the men	a bird			vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer bird=Stimulus
3	talk	gerund	a bird not said here		men's hunting camp	before property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	begin	past	the men				vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
5	ask speech: ask	to-infinitive	the men not said here			among men = man	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
6	say speech: assert	past · progressive	Aictor			what obj	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic
7	not understand	past · do-support	men = man	Ingor			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer ingor=Stimulus
8	not tell speech: assert	could	men = man	one			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent one=Recipient

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

Text: «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Project Gutenberg book 70959 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/25/48/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 48

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 48